Chapter 216: Battlefield Rations

Our footsteps produced grating sounds as we traveled along the ground that was turned glassy due to the laser bombardment. The din of explosions intermittently echoed around us. Visibility was crap thanks to all the metallic sand flying around, but even so, we still managed to make out the grotesque forms of those gigantic aggressive lifeforms we fought back on Comatt III in the distance.

“With this, we’ve confirmed that those aggressive lifeforms are indeed artificially created.”

Lt. Col. Serena muttered as she stood beside me while looking ahead. She was wearing a full-face helmet that covered her entire head, so we were speaking through our in-built comms.

“No matter how you cut it, those things are the same as the creatures we fought on Comatt III.”

“Yes. Since they look quite similar, we can roughly conclude it to be the case.”

She said ‘roughly’ since we still needed to make an official DNA comparison to formally establish the conclusion that they were the same creatures. Even so, what are the chances of these creatures that appeared on both Comatt III and Comatt IV having exactly the same appearance but different DNA make-up? Chances of that happening should be astronomically low.

『Lieutenant, we’ve managed to catch a response that’s likely to be the suppression ship.』

“Good. Share the info to our forces in the air.”

『Yes, ma’am!』

Before long, the information popped up on my universal mask’s HUD as well. As expected, it wasn’t that far from our current position. Since it was impossible to detect it from the air, we were forced to search for it on the ground.

“Are we going to walk all the way over?”

“It won’t take that long anyway. It would take us an equivalent amount of time if we opted to secure a dropship, board it with everyone along with all our equipment, and do a roll-call.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

It’s not really an unreasonable distance away. Let’s just walk then.

『We’ve sighted the suppression ship right ahead. It’s pierced the ground and looks to be out of commission.』

“Send in the drones first to perform some scouting. It won’t be funny if they left us with surprise presents such as reactive bombs after all. Combat engineers, install a shield generator here and set up a simple defensive emplacement.”

『Aye, aye, ma’am!』

Under the command of Lt. Col. Serena, the imperial marines started briskly executing their orders. Since I didn’t have anything to do myself, I just waited around while feeling bored. Uh, but I still had my guard up of course.

“Reactive bombs huh. Do they even have any leeway to set those up?”

“Even if they didn’t place any reactive bombs, it’s also possible that they might have fiddled with the ship’s energy generator. You don’t wanna get blown to bits the moment you step inside, right?”

“Yeah, definitely.”

If they overloaded the ship’s energy generator, it would cause an explosion comparable to reactive bombs going off after all. In SOL, something like that wasn’t possible, but it’s a very real danger in this dimension.

After a while, the scouts operating the drones reported that there were no dangers present, and afterward, the rest of the investigation team rushed inside the suppression ship. We confirmed that the target wasn’t present inside the ship, so I and Lt. Col. Serena rested within the defensive encampment for the mean time.

“Let’s take this chance to eat some food.”

“Yeah.”

The metallic sand flying around couldn’t get inside the defensive encampment since it was covered with a ground-use energy shield generator. Thanks to that, we’re able to remove our helmets to eat some food and drink water. While I was removing my universal mask, Lt. Col. Serena instructed her men to take turns in eating their meals. As I gave her figure a sidelong glance, I took out the food rations prepared for me by Mimi and Elma–

“……”

“Uwah, what exactly is that?”

What came out of my backpack was a vacuum-packed strangely-shaped creature. Uh, yeah, about this… I’ve actually tried this thing before. Despite appearances, this thing tastes surprisingly good. The outer shell was actually soft and felt similar to kamaboko and the insides tasted like creamy paste. I heard this was actually used as military rations in some countries.

“……This is actually good you know.”

“You’ve already tried eating one!?”

“……Yeah.”

But why did this thing get stuffed in my backpack in the first place? Suddenly, Elma making a tehepero[1] face popped up in my head. Mimi couldn’t have done it, so Elma was definitely the culprit. However, the one who bought this, uh, ‘alien foodstuff’, was definitely Mimi. Mimi prepared the things inside the backpack along with Elma, so I guess there’s a chance she stuffed this thing in as well huh. I’m gonna have to question them thoroughly when I get back to the ship. Just you wait, guys!

“Um……”

“This is simply a cute prank by my cute crew members, hahaha……”

Anyway, let’s just pretend the F*cehugger didn’t exist. I stuffed the thing back inside and looked for other stuff to eat. After a short while, I finally found something resembling food stuffed at the bottom of the backpack.

It was wrapped in silver-colored metallic foil, and the front side had a label that said ‘Penitence Kingdom Military Ration Type 3’. The ingredients and nutritional values contained in one serving were printed on the back. It kinda resembled those packed castella sold in supermarkets back on Earth. It was relatively heavy for its size and looked quite filling.

“What’s that?”

“Ah–…… It looks like it’s a military ration brand sold in some place called the Penitence kingdom.”

“Ah, it’s a bit far, but that country has good relations with the empire.”

“Hmm… Well, this looks pretty decent. Let’s check it out.”

I tore the silver foil packaging open and what greeted me was something resembling a pretty hefty pound cake. It looks like the foil packaging was wrapped pretty tightly around this pound cake-looking pastry.

“It smells pretty nice, doesn’t it?”

That it did. The aroma wafting from it had some fruity undertones. It looks like Lt. Col. Serena was also a lady who couldn’t resist sweets. Uh, well, there are a lot of guys who like sweet stuff too, I guess. I don’t exactly hate them either.

“You want a bite?”

“Alright. I’ll give you some of my rations in exchange too.”

I tore off a large piece of the pound cake and handed it to Lt. Col. Serena and took a bite out of my own portion. Lt. Col. Serena handed me something that looked like a dry sausage.

“What’s this here?”

“It’s a military-style sausage. It tastes pretty decent.”

“Hm. I guess I’ll have a try then.”

I held the rations of the Penitence kingdom on one hand and that of the Geppels empire on the other. I wolfed down the one from the Penitence kingdom first.

Its texture was akin to that of soft, moist bread and was on the heavy side. Its sweetness probably wasn’t thanks to sugar alone. It looks like the kneaded dried fruits into the dough. I also tasted a hint of alcohol so maybe they used some sweet liquor as well.

“Mm… I feel like I’ve eaten something pretty similar in the past.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I wonder what it was?”

Oh, right! I remember now. It’s stollen. If I remember correctly, it was a type of German pastry, right? Well, Lt. Col. Serena probably isn’t familiar with it anyway so I’ll just keep quiet about it. Okay. Next is this dry sausage ration from the Geppels empire.

“Mm, it certainly does taste decent.”

“Doesn’t it? There are plenty of soldiers who snack on it while having a drink as well.”

Hey, that’s right. This thing does taste like those cheapo dry sausages sold in convenience stores back on Earth as well. It wasn’t bad, but the taste was still lacking something. It didn’t feel like I was biting on something made from meat as well. But it was decently salty and fatty. These things were probably formulated to be passable sources of salt and calories.

“I prefer the ration from Penitence kingdom.”

“Me too.”

It was quite hefty so you’d easily fill yourself up even without eating the whole thing. Although you’d probably get tired of it pretty easily if you kept having it for your three meals for a couple of days, in terms of taste, the ration from the Penitence kingdom was still more satisfying overall.

Well, apart from the dry sausage, the Geppels empire also included a biscuit-like calorie bar and a gel-like cold soup in their ration set, so I guess they were about on par with each other when it comes to filling you up.

“Are you going to eat that thing too?”

“……If there’s an opportunity, then yeah. But I think it would actually taste better than the rations from Penitence kingdom and Geppels empire though.”

“Eeh……?”

Lt. Col. Serena gave me a dubious side-eye, but as one who’s already tasted that stuff, I’m telling you it’s legit. If this investigation continues for longer, I’ll definitely find a way to have Lt. Col. Serena try it too.